Adam Mertz Of Discuss: How AI Is Disrupting Our Industry, and What We Can Do About It

An Interview With Cynthia Corsetti

Set a goal for actually using it regularly — this relates to the first tip, but the difference here is trying to use it for some sort of task that’s part of your daily job. Even if you go to ChatGPT after you’ve completed that task, you can then compare its output to your output.

Artificial Intelligence is no longer the future; it is the present. It’s reshaping landscapes, altering industries, and transforming the way we live and work. With its rapid advancement, AI is causing disruption — for better or worse — in every field imaginable. While it promises efficiency and growth, it also brings challenges and uncertainties that professionals and businesses must navigate. What can one do to pivot if AI is disrupting their industry? As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Adam Mertz, SVP of Product and Marketing at Discuss.

Adam is responsible for leading the innovation, go-to-market, and growth strategies for Discuss. He’s also focused on driving a culture of obsessing over customer challenges in market research, and innovation that enables customers to rethink what’s possible in scaling qualitative research. He has led the company’s efforts as the first mover in GenAI within the qualitative market research industry.

As a technologist at heart, Adam has been directly involved in driving innovation at high growth tech organizations for 20+ years, including in the AI and machine learning space. His past experience also includes holding product and marketing leadership roles in helping drive one of the largest IPOs (Jive Software) at the time in the community and customer experience technology space.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

I’ve always loved adventure, and trying new things, and have a curiosity that would rival most cats. I also grew up with a love for numbers and math. My interest in tech started at a young age as my father became a dealer for the Apple Macintosh. On the weekends he would encourage me to play on the computers in his store which helped show his store’s patrons that kids enjoyed them. Ahh, the days of MacPaint.

So technology and new innovation became a passion of mine that started early. I joined a true start up right out of college which led to a nine year adventure that included building a hiring app for retailers that leveraged AI and predictive modeling. I worked with some really smart people and was fortunate to be part of a high growth tech success story while also being so deeply involved in building the AI app that I’m listed as one of the inventors on the patent we received for it. That experience hooked me in focusing on innovation that addressed the ‘hard to scale’ business problems and reimagining how to solve them.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Discuss focuses on solving challenges related to scaling qualitative research — i.e. getting in-depth feedback from target audiences — and where we stand out goes right to the heart of this interview as the market research space is being completely disrupted. We are the first mover in our space in introducing a GenAI-based suite of capabilities, Genie, which leverages the OpenAI engine and their API. It’s amazing to see a third of our customer base already using Genie, which right now is focused on ‘automagically’ summarizing hours and hours of recorded in-depth feedback interviews, highlighting key themes and pulling out quotes related to those themes that then can be turned into highlight reels for reports in just a couple clicks.

This is really just the start of our plans with GenAI but to give an idea of how game changing this is, I’ll share a quick story that comes to mind from a recent conversation with an executive at one of the world’s largest CPG companies. When I asked the customer to share with me the difference they saw after turning Genie on, I was told they are doing in minutes what used to take the team weeks. They actually tested the Genie summary report output on a market research project they had previously completed. Their feedback was that the report they created in a click with Genie aligned to the report they spent weeks building. As we’ve now added quotes that relate to each key theme, that’s what makes the decision makers’ eyes really light up because for many it’s the first time they’re truly hearing the customer’s words related to the key findings.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

That’s an easy question, as whenever I have a new hire and share a bit about myself I always talk about the 3 C’s that I identify most with as my character traits:

Curious — I don’t feel that I have all the answers. I feel like I should always be striving to learn. I like good lively dialog and collaboration, and I enjoy working through challenges collaboratively. A funny story related to this trait and this article topic of GenAI is that I got turned on to the potential of GenAI from listening to my 2 teenager kids talk about it over a year ago and how they had a ‘new tool for helping write essays’. I didn’t have a mindset that I should know more than them because I’m a tech executive, and in fact had a mindset that they might have already thought of interesting ways to get value out of GenAI that I should be thinking about applying for Discuss.

Courage — I should first say that having this as a core value definitely does not mean I’m not afraid. To me it’s about ‘falling forward’ and encouraging/promoting an environment of going for it, and not letting perfection get in the way of progress. Courage is just trying and being okay with not getting everything right all the time, and having a mindset of turning adversity and tough dilemmas into an enjoyable challenge. A quote mentioned in one of my most recent reads, Fearvana (great book and shout out to the author, Akshay Nanavati), that really connected with me was ‘It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult’ — attributed to the ancient Roman philosopher, Seneca. I couldn’t agree more!

Committed — I think trust is built off of committing to people, being supportive as we all strive for some positive outcome, and in general my mindset is to be ‘all in’. That all in and mindset commitment applies to my work at Discuss, my family life and to my wife of 27 years, and my hobbies.

Let’s now move to the main point of our discussion about AI. Can you explain how AI is disrupting your industry? Is this disruption hurting or helping your bottom line?

For many years the pace of change in this industry was quite glacial, but GenAI represents a massive unlock in scaling how companies get close to their target audiences. And for however much promise there is, there’s plenty of peril as well. To unpack that a bit more, in market research there’s really two main types — quantitative (e.g. surveys) which generally deals with structured data, and qualitative (e.g. focus group, shopalong research, etc.) which generally deals with unstructured data.

Historically quantitative research has had the bigger budget focus because it’s just been easier to scale. However, in my opinion quantitative research will be in a crisis state in 2024 and beyond because not only is Gen Z proving to be anti-survey, but GenAI is now being used by all those survey takers on a massive scale to actually complete the surveys. An example of this is a big state of the market research industry report that comes out every year, called the Grit report, and the author of that report recently shared on a webcast that they had to throw out 25% of survey completes because they determined GenAI was used in responding. The percentages are now often even higher when it’s general consumer survey input, and so if you think about it, that potential for ‘input fraud’ means you really can’t trust those survey results to drive key decisions as much anymore.

While the potential negative impact is rather large on the quantitative side, it’s equally positively disruptive on the qualitative side. The reason for this is because GenAI is really made for helping make sense out of unstructured data. This unstructured nature is really the main reason why research budgets haven’t focused as much on qualitative but now that difficulty in scaling due to the unstructured nature is going to be addressed with GenAI. I think it will mean billions of dollars in market research ultimately moving from quantitative over to qualitative.

Which specific AI technology has had the most significant impact on your industry?

I think Generative AI, although it’s just a type of machine learning that uses deep learning, will undoubtedly have the biggest impact on our industry over the course of the next year. Natural language processing of course also has already had an impact and will continue, but if you look out a couple years and think about the concept of synthetic respondents and using neural networks and predictive modeling to instantaneously see how different target segments might respond to advertising message concepts, product concepts, and user experiences, I think then we’ll have our next game changer in our industry on the AI front. I also have seen some really interesting technologies, and ones we’re looking at integrating with our platform, that leverage AI in summarizing expressions and reactions during in-depth research interviews. That smile, that leaning in, or that frown is what needs to be incorporated into themes and conversation summaries.

Can you share a pivotal moment when you recognized the profound impact AI would have on your sector?

It was in March when we walked through our plans with some of our key customers during a customer advisory board meeting. We highlighted what we were going to build and deliver, and despite some of the disbelief of how possible our plans were, there were at least 3 of the 10+ customers who used the word ‘game changer’ if we actually delivered on the plans we were sharing with them. But what was the most amazing part is that I saw all of them leaning in, and literally eyes lighting up about how valuable GenAI would be, and little did they know that what we shared was just the tip of the iceberg of our broader plans.

How are you preparing your workforce for the integration of AI, and what skills do you believe will be most valuable in an AI-enhanced future?

We have a company objective for 2024 to deliver workplace productivity through the use of Gen-AI across all Discuss functions. That means encouraging the use of GenAI to help us work faster and smarter, whether it’s testing code, helping us create marketing content, or helping our sales team use GenAI tech to more quickly understand key initiatives from annual reports of our customers to better tailor our solution and message. The most important skill is the willingness to embrace GenAI and proactively think of ways to leverage it.

What are the biggest challenges in upskilling your workforce for an AI-centric future?

I think sometimes experience itself in an area can get in the way of upskilling when it comes to an AI-centric future. When you’ve been doing something for a while a certain way, and you’re good at it, it makes it almost hard to imagine how you might completely rethink your job or reframe how you can go about not just meeting but exceeding objectives and goals.

What ethical considerations does AI introduce into your industry, and how are you tackling these concerns?

At this point, I think our industry doesn’t have some of the big ethical considerations as other industries. Right now, we’re working on Genie assisting our customers in identifying personas, craft discussion guides, and summarize transcripts in smart ways. We see GenAI as a virtual assistant, as there’s no replacement of jobs, but rather letting people spend less time on arduous tasks. The most important ethical element is that when it comes to analyzing respondent data, it’s critical to have a closed-loop system. Corporations need to ensure that respondent data is never shared publicly, doesn’t feed the large language models and is passed securely when using GenAI engines like OpenAI. Our focus and diligence in this area has led to our many large global customer compliance teams giving the go-ahead for leveraging Genie.

What are your “Five Things You Need To Do, If AI Is Disrupting Your Industry”?

1 . Stay curious about it — by this, I mean that it’s important to look for ways to educate yourself about GenAI. Attend relevant webcasts or read articles about it. Maybe most important — just use it for fun. Once you start using something like ChatGPT, it’s easier to start thinking about the possibilities it might have in helping you work smarter and faster.

2 . Carve out time to reimagine doing your job — I’ve spoken with literally hundreds of really smart, dedicated market research professionals over the past couple of years and unfortunately, I hear too often about budgets shrinking and turnaround times for research shortening. Now is the time to take time and think about the biggest time sinks in the research process and how GenAI might be able to enable a new way.

3 . Set a goal for actually using it regularly — this relates to the first tip, but the difference here is trying to use it for some sort of task that’s part of your daily job. Even if you go to ChatGPT after you’ve completed that task, you can then compare its output to your output.

4 . Use vendors that ensure any risk is mitigated — this tip goes back to some of the biggest fears people have about using GenAI. You most definitely want to ask questions of any vendor you’re using about how they ensure a secure, private, and ideally closed-loop system.

5 . Don’t be scared — this tip is the culmination of all four of the previous tips. Don’t worry about GenAI taking your job. GenAI is unlikely to take your job if you’re in market research today. If you don’t embrace GenAI, it will be the people who do embrace GenAI who will take your job.

What are the most common misconceptions about AI within your industry, and how do you address them?

Despite the security, privacy and ethical risks being minimal, there’s no doubt the biggest misconception is that there is some sort of big risk in leveraging GenAI for research. The fear of using a tech that might raise a red flag with compliance is a real fear. And in some cases, large organizations have in fact banned the use of ChatGPT which then stokes this fear. However, using ChatGPT, which is using GenAI in a very public way, is very different from using it in a closed-loop fashion. However, getting people to that level of understanding and the difference is definitely still a hurdle at many organizations.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

There’s a couple of quotes that come to mind — embrace adversity, and don’t let perfection get in the way of progress. I think looking at new challenges as opportunities vs. problems, and being willing to roll up my sleeves has played a big part in my success over the years. As a volunteer for Search and Rescue, we often say ‘Embrace the Suck’ because it’s rarely nice weather, or daylight, when you’re searching for a lost hiker in the forest. It’s a mindset of embracing adversity to support a higher cause and it’s an example of how a little hardship can really boost determination if you just have the right attitude.

And the second quote I often say to my team — it’s just so important to do something even if it’s not quite right rather than not doing anything, because in the process of acting and doing you’ll undoubtedly learn something new that can help you.

Off-topic, but I’m curious. As someone steering the ship, what thoughts or concerns often keep you awake at night? How do those thoughts influence your daily decision-making process?

If I’m honest here, I sleep great. I don’t really have any concerns that keep me awake at night. I think it’s because my mindset has always been to try my hardest, focus on helping others and to just have the right intentions. So with my daily decision making centered around those things, I know that there’s likely not much more I could have done if something doesn’t go perfect, and so why worry about it.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I think I would start a movement along the lines of ‘Give a little love’. It would be a movement centered around showing empathy, respect, and appreciation in small acts everyday. I mean, I work for a tech company so I get that I didn’t choose a path in life that is dedicated to helping others like being a teacher, nurse, in a non-profit, etc. but I think that represents a lot of people. So between that and having kids, it can feel like there’s no time to really make a difference. But I’m a believer that saying hello to someone you walk by, telling someone you appreciate them, or just always giving others the benefit of the doubt really can go a long way. Like Mother Teresa once said — “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”

How can our readers further follow you online?

Well, to my earlier points, I spend a lot of time rolling up my sleeves in helping drive Discuss’ growth, so I’m not a prolific blogger or social media person. You can always check out what I’m commenting on or posting by connecting with or following me on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/adammertz/, or if you are ever visiting Portland I’m happy to suggest a good hike that’s near the city as I think I know almost every good waterfall and trail in our beautiful Columbia Gorge area.

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

About the Interviewer: Cynthia Corsetti is an esteemed executive coach with over two decades in corporate leadership and 11 years in executive coaching. Author of the upcoming book, “Dark Drivers,” she guides high-performing professionals and Fortune 500 firms to recognize and manage underlying influences affecting their leadership. Beyond individual coaching, Cynthia offers a 6-month executive transition program and partners with organizations to nurture the next wave of leadership excellence.